Hare - any good?

Author
Discussion

oddman

2,346 posts

253 months

Sunday 28th April
quotequote all
Silvanus said:
Mobile Chicane said:
I personally think hare is a tricky meat to cook. Lean, tough, and gamey.

Needs 'lube' I'd say.

Now I know the traditional method is to 'jug' it in red wine to break down the toughness of the meat, however I wonder if this reaches back to a time when 'fat' was very highly prized, and expensive.

I'd have a go at a slow confit in duck fat with garlic, then shred for further use. A pastilla might be be nice - a common Middle Eastern treatment for pigeon - likewise in a game pie to pimp up less flavourful meats.
Your right about fat. The fillets wrapped in bacon and served pink are very tasty. Like all game game there's always a bit of game roulette at play, as you often don't know the age of the animal or how long it's been hung.

I have done confit rabbit in lard a few times, never thought about doing hare.
Confitting is a good call, preparing rillettes would be another good idea for hare. I've done this very successfully with rabbit, squirrel and wild goose.

Off the top of my head I would go 50:50 ratio of fatty pork belly strips and hare shoulder and leg meat with some S&P whole garlic cloves and thyme or rosemary.

Covered pot in low oven for a long time. Remove let it cool a bit and shred the meat with two forks. Pack the meat loosely into ramekins or jars. Pour in the juice and seal with the liquid fat. Cool and then refridgerate. Spread on toasted sourdough with pickles and enjoy a cheaper Côtes du Rhône than you drank when you ate the saddles.

Silvanus

5,302 posts

24 months

Sunday 28th April
quotequote all
oddman said:
Silvanus said:
Mobile Chicane said:
I personally think hare is a tricky meat to cook. Lean, tough, and gamey.

Needs 'lube' I'd say.

Now I know the traditional method is to 'jug' it in red wine to break down the toughness of the meat, however I wonder if this reaches back to a time when 'fat' was very highly prized, and expensive.

I'd have a go at a slow confit in duck fat with garlic, then shred for further use. A pastilla might be be nice - a common Middle Eastern treatment for pigeon - likewise in a game pie to pimp up less flavourful meats.
Your right about fat. The fillets wrapped in bacon and served pink are very tasty. Like all game game there's always a bit of game roulette at play, as you often don't know the age of the animal or how long it's been hung.

I have done confit rabbit in lard a few times, never thought about doing hare.
Confitting is a good call, preparing rillettes would be another good idea for hare. I've done this very successfully with rabbit, squirrel and wild goose.

Off the top of my head I would go 50:50 ratio of fatty pork belly strips and hare shoulder and leg meat with some S&P whole garlic cloves and thyme or rosemary.

Covered pot in low oven for a long time. Remove let it cool a bit and shred the meat with two forks. Pack the meat loosely into ramekins or jars. Pour in the juice and seal with the liquid fat. Cool and then refridgerate. Spread on toasted sourdough with pickles and enjoy a cheaper Côtes du Rhône than you drank when you ate the saddles.
That made my mouth water. Currently curring some pheasant legs for confit

Mobile Chicane

20,851 posts

213 months

Monday 29th April
quotequote all
oddman said:
Silvanus said:
Mobile Chicane said:
I personally think hare is a tricky meat to cook. Lean, tough, and gamey.

Needs 'lube' I'd say.

Now I know the traditional method is to 'jug' it in red wine to break down the toughness of the meat, however I wonder if this reaches back to a time when 'fat' was very highly prized, and expensive.

I'd have a go at a slow confit in duck fat with garlic, then shred for further use. A pastilla might be be nice - a common Middle Eastern treatment for pigeon - likewise in a game pie to pimp up less flavourful meats.
Your right about fat. The fillets wrapped in bacon and served pink are very tasty. Like all game game there's always a bit of game roulette at play, as you often don't know the age of the animal or how long it's been hung.

I have done confit rabbit in lard a few times, never thought about doing hare.
Confitting is a good call, preparing rillettes would be another good idea for hare. I've done this very successfully with rabbit, squirrel and wild goose.

Off the top of my head I would go 50:50 ratio of fatty pork belly strips and hare shoulder and leg meat with some S&P whole garlic cloves and thyme or rosemary.

Covered pot in low oven for a long time. Remove let it cool a bit and shred the meat with two forks. Pack the meat loosely into ramekins or jars. Pour in the juice and seal with the liquid fat. Cool and then refridgerate. Spread on toasted sourdough with pickles and enjoy a cheaper Côtes du Rhône than you drank when you ate the saddles.
The slow cooker is perfect for this. Sadly no pictures:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=99...

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...






oddman

2,346 posts

253 months

Tuesday 30th April
quotequote all
Mobile Chicane said:
Very similar principle to my suggestion. The game meat is doing the same job as the liver in your recipe. Adding another dimension of flavour. Agree with your comments about lack of fats in modern raised pork. It's essential to make this work and the main reason pork is there is to deliver the fat. I tend to reserve any spare fat from roasting so I have something to supplement with if the pork belly is on the lean side. This sort of 'charcuterie' aslo needs a bit of courage with the salt and pepper.

Somewhatfoolish

Original Poster:

4,391 posts

187 months

Friday 3rd May
quotequote all
Looks like Shaw Meats are also gonna be at the Newcastle Food Festival, which is basically the same distance from me as Bishop was. I can't go on Saturday (got more important things to do like MONSTER TRUCKS) but if they're there on Sunday wonder if I should go along and ask about haunches...

Gotta say the festival itself doesn't look like it's gonna be anything like as good as the Bishop one was... probably cause of the lack of awesome-whole-town-owes-so-much-to-him-honestly-there-will-be-thousands-at-his-funeral eccentric billionaire funding it unlike the Bishop one.

Edited by Somewhatfoolish on Friday 3rd May 23:12